Friday, April 28, 2017

An Interview With Loving vs. Virginia Illustrator Shadra Strickland by Jennifer Tolo Pierce from the Chronicle Books blog. Peek: "The challenge for me was to retain the looseness and spontaneity of the drawings as if I were drawing right in front of each scene. I had to make up each scene by constructing collaged elements using photographs of the Lovings that I found online."

Illustrator Roundtable by Jennifer Baker from We Need Diverse Books. Peek: "Arigon (Starr): I broke into the industry as a writer. Super Indian was created as a radio series, and I adapted the scripts I’d written for the radio show into longer, more detailed comic book scripts. Luckily for me, I had drawing and art skills and didn’t fear learning new computer skills..."

We're The People: Summer Reading 2017. Peek: "Books written or illustrated by Native Americans or people of color? Books that include characters who are Native? People of color? People with disabilities? LGBTQ? Take a look at these!"

Why I Wrote That Thing We Call A Heart by Sheba Karim from Epic Reads. Peek: "Growing up, I couldn’t find myself in any books I read; in the realm of books, TV and Hollywood films, South Asian-Americans simply didn’t exist. This childhood longing to see myself reflected even once in books or pop culture is what motivates me to write books with South Asian and Muslim characters today."

When Writing is Actually About Waiting by Joe Fassler from The Atlantic. Peek: T. S. Eliot's poem East Coker, written after a four-year drought "....is a prayer for creative release: for the ability to remain patient, to find peace inside of doubt, to hear music in the quiet....(Hannah) Tinti explained how the poem taught her to push the outside world away and write for the right reasons—without hope for success or fear of failure..."

Growing a Writer's Tree by T.A. Barron from his blog. Peek: "How can I possibly make sense of a craft so amorphous and shape-shifting that it seems to have no rules or boundaries? The answer, I’ve found, lies in treating your creation as a living, breathing organism. A tree."

Melanie Fishbane and Maud by Adi Rule from the VCFA Launchpad. Peek: "For some people who write historical fiction the issue is not enough material, but with L.M. Montgomery, the issue is that there is so much. Montgomery was very particular about what she left behind. She burned her correspondence before she died, and copied out her journals into uniform ledgers, destroying the originals."

The Complex Power of Mapping the World of Your Novel by Barbara O'Neal from Writer UnBoxed. Peek: "As I make a map of my imaginary world, I make it less imaginary and much more real by walking through it over and over, crossing the street to the bakery....I create new neurons, real neurons, even if the map is of an imaginary world."

How to Optimize Your Amazon Author Central Pages by Penny Sansevieri from Jane Friedman's blog. Peek: Readers tend to use Amazon to look at an author’s complete list of books, so by optimizing your Author Central page, you’ll find that you draw in more repeat readers than before....Every author, regardless of when or what they’ve published, has an Author Central page."Should You Have More Than One Bio? YES. Here's Why... by Sophie Masson from Writer UnBoxed. Peek: "Each of them will be written for particular purposes, whether that be pitching for genre-specific projects, for festivals and conferences, or for book proposals and blurbs. Each of them will have a slightly different angle, though they encapsulate the same basic biographical and bibliographical information."

Guard Your Time by Jane LeBak from QueryTracker. Peek: "...note that some people are not going to give as much as they expect you to give them. They think it's fine to join a query-letter critique forum and immediately post their critique, their synopsis, and their first five pages, then never comment on anyone else's submissions... they don't want a give-and-take relationship, so it's okay to back off."

A Dead End that Changed My Direction by Lindsey Lane from Storeybook Reviews. Peek: "Each time we come to the pages of our manuscripts, we bring our history as well our intention to tell a true and honest story. We quarry for the best nuggets and we line them up one by one leading the reader deeper into the world we have created."

New Book, New Writing Process? Why Changing It Up Works by Heather Webb from Writer UnBoxed. Peek: "Each of your manuscripts will have different characters. plotlines, structures. Different needs. This will undoubtedly affect your writing process. This is not only okay, it’s good. It means you’re probably doing something right. It means you’re growing."

When Good Characters Behave Despicably (and They Should) by Kim Bullock from Writer UnBoxed. Peek: "Characters who infuriate can leave more of a lasting impression upon readers than ones who are simply likable. Think Nick and Amy in Gone Girl or Humbert Humbert in Lolita. I despised all of them, but I remember their stories years later."

Brendan Reichs on Nemesis by Amanda West Lewis from the VCFA Launchpad. Peek: "I had to cut a lot of information I’d included about the vacation town of Fire Lake...I spent months diligently constructing and building up my imaginary community, and I wanted it all to go into the book. But, sadly, including it made the first part read like a travelogue and slowed the plot...."

Connections Through Books by Katherine Sokolowski from Read, Write, Reflect. Peek: "My goal is simple, I want everyone to find a book they love. I want everyone to have a reading role model in case they don't live with one. I know the power of that role model. I know the power of a love of reading. My goal is next to impossible, but it doesn't mean I will give up."

Kate Hosford and How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea by Adi Rule from the VCFA Launchpad. Peek: Uma (Krishnaswami) really encouraged me to turn colonialism on its ear and create child characters that are thoroughly unimpressed with royalty. Thank goodness she did. At that point the story became more meaningful, and also funnier.

The precipice! I always say that about short stories, that they should lead the reader to the precipice of change.

(I'm sure I'm not the first writer to say so, but there it is.)

This week I've been wearing my Teacher Hat, grading my third of six rounds of packets by VCFA students. Both of my critical thesis students have much to celebrate! Huzzah!

As for me, I'm about to embark on the last rung of revision before sending my YA realism manuscript back to my Candlewick editor.

To be honest, I've been fiddling over the week, adding the smallest brushstrokes of clarity, of culture, of personaliy and dialogue. Probably readers will never notice them in specificity, but in this moment, they feel crucial to me and will, ultimately, matter to the novel in the whole. Um, or not.

What does that mean in practical terms? It's Friday! Between now and "Star Wars" Day, I can probably read the whole thing and key in changes five times. And then the lovely Gayleen will read aloud to me to double check line edits.... And then? Well, kittens, May the Fourth Be With Us!

Meanwhile, do you have a question for me? If so feel free to send it in the comments or via DM on Twitter or by email. If enough of interest come in, I'll answer them in an interview format. Thanks!

When Olga is not drawing, she is off surfing somewhere around the globe. She currently lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

In Edward Gets Messy, a very particular little pig discovers the joys that come with getting messy in this sweet and fun debut picture book.

Edward the pig never pets friendly dogs on the street. He never, ever eats food that spills or splatters. And he never, ever, ever uses markers or glue sticks or paint. They are just too messy.

But what happens when a big tub of paint falls on Edward's perfectly neat little head? Well, it might just turn out that getting messy has its upsides, too.

Copyrighted interior illustration by Olga Stern, used with permission.

Meade and Stern will share a prize of $1,000 from the Children's Book Council, and Penguin will purchase and donate 250 copies of Edward Gets Messy to a school, library, or literacy organization chosen by the award winners. There will be a ceremony to honor Edward Gets Messy at theBrooklyn Public Library's Bay Ridge Branch at 10:30 a.m. May 4.

Individual and corporate donations, grants, and the CBC support Every Child a Reader.

Every Child a Reader works in partnership with the Children's Book Council, the nonprofit trade association for children's book publishers in North America.

The CBC offers children's publishers, from smaller independent presses to large international houses, the opportunity to work together on issues of importance to the industry at large, including educational programming, diversity in employment and books, literacy advocacy, and partnerships with other national organizations.

The year I was seventeen, I had five best friends...and I was in love with all of them for different reasons.Billie McCaffrey is always starting things. Like couches constructed of newspapers and two-by-fours. Like costumes made of aluminum cans and Starburst papers. Like trouble. This year, however, trouble comes looking for her. Her best friends, a group she calls the Hexagon, have always been schemers. They scheme for kicks and giggles. What happens when you microwave a sock? They scheme to change their small town of Otters Holt, Kentucky for the better. Why not campaign to save the annual Harvest Festival we love so much? They scheme because they need to scheme. How can we get the most unlikely candidate elected for the town’s highest honor?But when they start scheming about love, things go sideways.

In Otters Holt, love has always been defined one way—girl and boy fall in love, get married, buy a Buick, and there’s sex in there somewhere. For Billie—a box-defying dynamo—it’s not that simple. Can the Hexagon, her parents, and the town she calls home handle the real Billie McCaffrey?

Could you tell us about Dress Codes for Small Towns? What inspired you to write this book?

When I began Dress Codes, I described it as "Ferris Bueller meets 'The Breakfast Club'" for lines like this, “The year I was seventeen, I had five best friends—a pixie, a president, a pretender, a puker, and a douchebag—and I was in love with all of them for different reasons.”

Now, I usually describe Dress Codes as sexually fluid "Footloose." Preacher’s daughter. Reluctant small town. A pack of kids to change their hearts.

My inspiration was walking barn beams and climbing on top of old elementary schools and wearing my older brother’s clothes. You know, #girlstuff.

Is Otters Holt similar to the town you grew up in?
If you picked up Matchbox car sized Bandana (my hometown) in the palm of your hand and plucked it down alongside the Kentucky Dam, you’d have Otters Holt. Well, if you added a forty-foot Molly the Corn Dolly roadside attraction. And I personally think you should.

Bandana (Courtney's hometown)

Faith is a subject that doesn't show up very often in YA books, especially books that explore the gray areas of love, gender and sexuality. How did you create the delicate balance in exploring those subjects?

I’ve spent nearly all my adult life working with teens and here is what I’ve learned: every young adult has a spiritual life. Some exercise that life through churches or organized religion; some through atheism; some through questions brought up reading The Kite Runner (by Khaled Hosseini, Riverhead, 2004) or playing Grand Theft Auto or watching footage from the news.

So, very basically, I love to include faith because students are thinking about it.

As for the gray areas, I have two beliefs that guide my writing. One, people are never ever just one thing. And two, it is not my job to draw conclusions—for the church or this generation—but to love them enough to have the conversation.

What appeals to you about writing for young adults?

Young adults will always be the next generation of world changers. Writing for them gives me a chance to partner with them, which I consider a privilege and an honor.

What are the craft challenges of writing for this age group?

Writing is gloriously, wonderfully hard, regardless of audience. I am currently drafting an “adult” book and there appear to be very few, if any, challenges that aren’t present in both crafts.

I like to say that I write coming-of-truth novels rather than coming-of-age novels. So, the thing that makes the adult book “adult” is the protagonist comes of truth in adulthood rather than in her teen years.

With either audience, the bar is the same: write something that makes a reader love reading more today than they did yesterday.

What do you love most about the creative life/being an author? Why?

I’m mostly in it to see how many tattoos I can inspire.

No, seriously, there is a moment near the beginning of every draft when I realize Why I’m writing the book I’m writing—the reasons do vary widely—and I feel like I’m doing what I was made to do in the universe.

That deep connection of purpose and intention fuels my career and joy.

When and where do you write? Why does that time and space work for you?

I often say, I type sitting down, but I write standing up.

If you want to know when and where I type: in my personal office on long binges that rival a Netflix addiction of Stranger Things.

Next writing episode starts in 15, 14, 13, 12 …

If you want to know when and where I write: when I’m rock climbing, or walking The Narrows in Utah, or assembling scaffolding to cover a skylight at church, or asking a librarian if I can drive my sports car through the hallway of a school, or walking 1,000 miles last summer, or planning how I will build a 40-foot roadside attraction in my yard, or ….

Next life episode starts in 15, 14, 13, 12 …

When you look back on your writing journey, what are the changes that stand out?

My next book (working title: BOOM), my fourth contemporary novel with HarperTeen, follows four teens who are the soul survivors of a bus explosion.

Cynsations NotesCourtney “Court” Stevens grew up among rivers, cornfields, churches, and gossip in the small town south.

She is a former adjunct professor, youth minister, and Olympic torchbearer. She has a pet whale named Herman, a bandsaw named Rex, and several novels with her name on the spine: Faking Normal (Harper Teen, 2014), The Lies About Truth (Harper Teen, 2015), and the e-novella The Blue-Haired Boy (Harper Teen, 2014).

As an educator and author, she visits schools, designs retreats, and teaches workshops on marketing, revision, character development, and Channeling Your Brave. She also likes chips and queso and feels deeply sorry for the lactose intolerant.

When the summer moon is full, a beach trip is an epic way to spend the night.

With her signature poise, Vampirina gears up for a festive time at the beach.

Keeping her ballet lessons in mind, Vampirina demi-plies on a surfboard, leaps for a volleyball, and finishes each competition with style, even if she doesn't always come out on top.

What do you love most about the creative life/being an author? Why?

More than anything else, writing is like solving a puzzle for me, finding the right words to snap into the right place to communicate what I want to say in the right way.

You know how when you’re working a jigsaw puzzle, there’s this huge jumble of pieces waiting for you to build the outer edge and then fill in the middle section by section? At first it feels overwhelming but the more you do, the faster you can move, and it becomes really satisfying to begin to see the art.

With writing, the pieces are words, and you aren’t limited to 500 or 1000—you’ve got tens of thousands, and you get to design the outer edge and you get to create the picture. I find picture books very rewarding because every word—every piece—matters so much.

When and where do you write? Why does that time and space work for you?

I don’t have a set schedule the way some authors do. I heard Eileen Spinelli say at Chautauqua years ago that she taught herself to “write in the cracks” of the day, and that’s something I’ve worked on being able to do.

I can see the appeal of setting aside a block of time daily in which you devote yourself to your writing, but with four kids (even though they’re pretty big now), I’ve never been able to count on that time, so it’s better that I simply write when I can, rather than assuming that a particular time of day when I must work will be available to me.

I’m not saying there are never days when I sit and write for hours, because there are, but it’s not a regular thing for me the way it is for some writers.

And I mostly write these days on my green sofa. There’s room for my two cats and two dogs to sit with me, and it’s rather peaceful. They are with me as I type this.

Could you tell us about your new release?
Vampirina At The Beach is the third in the Vampirina Ballerina series.

Vampirina and her family hit the surf in what I’ve referred to from the beginning as “Monster Mash meets Beach Blanket Bingo.” I even watched a lot of Annette Funicello videos on YouTube to get in the beach party mood while I was writing.

LeUyen Pham’s illustrations are phenomenal in this book. The pages are chock-full of surprises for kids to find. And our first editor, Kevin Lewis, whom we dedicated the book to, is honored in the illustrations as Vampirina’s new friend, so it feels special in that way, too. I’m so tickled Uyen thought of that.

Then again, I’m always tickled at the wonderful elements she brings to each book in the series.

What appeals to you about writing gothic picture books?
I’ve thought a lot about this because I’m not really a fan of vampire movies or books, or in fact, any kind of scary element (although my TV viewing does include a couple of police procedural dramas, so maybe real life is scary enough for me).

So why vampires? Five of the six birthdays in my family fall in the autumn months, so as a mom,
October was always a very stressful month, with several birthday parties (even though I throw pretty casual, at-home parties) and four Halloween costumes to create for my kids. So I think Vampirina Ballerina has been a way for me to enjoy the Halloween season that I never enjoyed when my kids were little!

Anne Marie's kids and few of their friends from a long-ago Halloween

Of course, now I’m getting to know Vampirina outside of her Halloween-y self, and that’s even more fun.

What are the craft challenges of writing a series like this?
There are a few craft challenges that come to mind.

Of course, you want each book to be as inviting to children as the first. Subsequent books need to carry a sense of the familiar without being a complete retread.

Uyen suggested early on that Vampirina grow not only in the course of a story, but over the course of the series, so the theme of making friends has carried throughout.

In the first book, she feels like an outsider; in the second, she learns that she can trust her friends to love her for who she is; and in the third, she befriends someone who fears being seen as an outsider.

The biggest challenge for me with the text is that a lot of the humor comes from puns and words with multiple meanings and I don’t want to be repetitive with either vampire/monster words or ballet terms. Especially with the vampire terminology, I need to be very careful not to cross the line into anything scary. But I want the language in each book to stay fresh.

Image from Disney Junior

Tell us about the Disney series. When will it be broadcast? How involved are you?

The Disney Junior series debuts this fall. I don’t know an exact date, but I follow Chris Nee, the executive producer, on Twitter, and at one point, she said it would be before Halloween.

Actually, almost everything I know, I know from Twitter. I am not involved at all in creating the show—Uyen and I do our thing, Disney Junior folks do theirs—so I am watching it unfold like a fan.

I know Chris said there is a “dream cast” so I’m anxious to know whose voices we will hear in October. A lot of the creative people involved have also worked on the award-winning Doc McStuffins, so I feel confident that the property is in the best of hands.

Publishers Weekly gave Vampirina Ballerina a starred review. Peek: "The underlying messages are familiar: there are no shortcuts to achieving an ambitious dream, and persistence and a sunny outlook (even when one is a creature of the night) pay off. But seldom have these lessons been expounded with so much charm."

The night of the sixth-grade dance is supposed to be perfect for Maddie; she’ll wear her beautiful new dress, she’ll hit the dance floor with her friends, and her crush, Avery, will ask her to dance. Most importantly, she’ll finally leave her tiny elementary school behind for junior high. But as the first slow song starts to play, her plans crumble. Avery asks someone else to dance instead–and then the power goes out. Huddled in the gym, Maddie and her friends are stunned to hear that a tornado has ripped through the other side of town, destroying both Maddie’s and Avery’s homes.Kind neighbors open up their home to Maddie’s and Avery’s families, which both excites and horrifies Maddie. Sharing the same house . . . with Avery? For the entire summer? While it buys her some time to prove that Avery made the wrong choice at the dance, it also means he’ll be there to witness her morning breath and her annoying little brother. Meanwhile, she must search for her beloved dog, who went missing during the tornado. At the dance, all she wanted was to be more grown-up. Now that she has no choice, is she ready for it?

What inspired you to write this book? Have you experienced a tornado?

Much like Maddie, the main character in 14 Hollow Road, as a kid growing up in Massachusetts, about the last weather disaster I expected to experience in my home town was a tornado.

Blizzards: been there, done that. Hurricanes: yup. But a tornado?

Well, in June of 2011, a series of strong thunderstorms rolling across western and central Massachusetts spawned an EF-3 tornado.

Tornado damage near Jenn's home the following winter

I was living in Boston at the time, but my parents still lived in my childhood home, and I remember getting a call from my mother. Apparently while my dad was in his office in Springfield, he saw the funnel cloud forming over the river. There were a lot of frantic phone calls that afternoon between the three of us, as it was clear that a tornado was on the ground, taking essentially the same path my dad was taking home from work.

While most homes in Massachusetts do have basements, we do not have tornado sirens, so you really have to stay on top of severe weather yourself. My dad made the smart choice to pull off the road and stop in at my grandmother's apartment.

Meanwhile, as my mom huddled in the basement with her cat, the tornado, still a mile-wide at the time, crested the top of the hill where I lived and crossed my street about a half-mile from my parent's house.

When I return home for a visit, I'm still startled every time to see how bare the top of the hill is now.

While the events of that day certainly served as inspiration for the book, I think I was equally inspired by my own memories of junior high.

It's such a fraught age, filled with so much change and uncertainty: shifting friendships, crushes, cliques--all while your body is managing mood swings and hormones and growth spurts. I joked that 14 Hollow Road was basically a tornado of tweenage emotion.

What appeals to you about writing middle grade?

Everything?! The funny thing is that I came into writing middle grade almost accidentally.

I started out writing YA, having been a teen librarian, and only decided to try out middle grade on a whim while a student at Vermont College of Fine Arts and fell in love with it.

I love the brevity of middle grade -- the economy of prose and storytelling and audience expectations that put middle grade in that 40,000 to 60,000 word sweet spot, instead of 80,000 plus, like most YA these days.

I love the audience -- school and Skype visits with 4th-6th graders are so much fun. There's such an energy to that age.

It's still okay to be yourself and unabashedly love things-- the self-consciousness of the teen years is only just starting to arrive. Most of all, when I think of middle grade, I think of the stories that made me a reader. The books that I read at that age held such a power over me. And the truth is, they still do.

What do you love most about the creative life/being an author? Why?

The surprise of it, I think.

There are good surprises--and occasionally bad surprises--but I think the one constant in the life of an author is that you can't really predict much.

While that can be terrifying for some, I've been trying to appreciate the positive aspects of it. Your next creative idea could come from the place you least expected it.What are you working on next?

Weirdly enough, I've been trying my hand at writing picture books!

I don't know where this will lead, but I've spent the last month intensely reading and studying them and it's been such a breath of fresh air.

If you want to see the world from a new angle, try reading 100 picture books aloud in a month. I guarantee it will change you.

Cynsational NotesA Booklist review of 14 Hollow Road said, "Bishop nails the tween voice: Maddie is a realistic heroine who deals with typical middle-grade problems amidst disaster, and she navigates upheavals with occasional grace and more frequent missteps. Tornado or not, growing up is a tempestuous business."

A lifelong reader, she was formerly a youth services and teen librarian. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she studied English, and Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Along with her husband and cat, Jenn lives in Cincinnati, where she roots long-distance for the Red Sox. Her debut novel, The Distance To Home (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016) was described as a "piercing first novel" by Publishers Weekly.

Friday, April 21, 2017

The Changing Face of Family by Natasha Friend from CBC Diversity. Peek: "The traditional definition of family as a married mother and father and their children living under the same roof is woefully outdated, not to mention exclusionary."

A New Voice in Kid's Books by Melanie Kletter from Time For Kids Magazine. Peek: (Hena Khan) "....I had heard of resistance to mosques being built in communities, and some vandalism at mosques. It was an important theme that I wanted to address. But I didn’t want the book to be only about that. I wanted a character that readers could relate to and get to know and love."

While We're On the Subject of Shame by Gail Gauthier from Original Content. Peek: "We want to feel good now. We want to avoid what's making us feel bad (being ashamed of not working harder and longer, for instance), and we want to avoid it right away. Which usually means doing something easier and more fun than staying on task with our work."

Deprogramming Caution by Jan O'Hara from Writer Unboxed. Peek: "....certain types of occupational training, especially training connected to professions like law and medicine, invite caution and steadiness, making it harder to enter the entrepreneurial mindset or take creative leaps."

Wrap It Up by Dave King from Writer UnBoxed. Peek: "If it feels at all contrived, your readers will lose their suspension of disbelief. This is most critical with your ending."

Trees, Forests, and Human Myopia by Uma Krishnaswami from Writing With a Broken Tusk. Peek: "Trees support one another. Some are bullies and others are loners. They have friends; they feel loneliness and pain. They communicate through networks of roots. It’s a compelling argument to rethink how we have been looking at nature for over a century...."

Two Booksellers Set Date for Inaugural Texas Bookstore Day by Ed Nawotka from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Texas is increasingly becoming more relevant to the national bookselling scene, and several independent bookstores are slated to open in the state this summer....Interabang Books in Dallas.... and a second branch of Deep Vellum Books in Grapevine."

Tim's How I Became a Ghost (RoadRunner Press, 2013) remains one of my favorite MG novels and I'm eagerly awaiting When a Ghost Talks, Listen (RoadRunner Press, Sept. 2017).

I know I'm going to be up late reading the advance copy of Jessica's Uncertain Summer (CBAY Books, Sept. 2017) - it's about searching for Bigfoot....Tim's story in Flying Lessons & Other Stories (Crown, 2017) was "Choctaw Bigfoot, Midnight in the Mountains." I'm beginning to feel a little Sasquatch peer pressure here.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day), commonly known as Día, is a celebration every day of children, families, and reading that culminates yearly on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Día is a nationally recognized initiative that emphasizes the importance of literacy for all children from all backgrounds. It is a daily commitment to linking children and their families to diverse books, languages and cultures.

From award-winning author Elissa Brent Weissman comes a collection of quirky, smart, and vulnerable childhood works by some of today’s foremost children’s authors and illustrators—revealing young talent, the storytellers they would one day become, and the creativity they inspire today.

Everyone’s story begins somewhere…

For Linda Sue Park, it was a trip to the ocean, a brand-new typewriter, and a little creative license.

For Jarrett J. Krosoczka, it was a third grade writing assignment that ignited a creative fire in a kid who liked to draw.

For Kwame Alexander, it was a loving poem composed for Mother’s Day—and perfected through draft after discarded draft.

For others, it was a teacher, a parent, a beloved book, a word of encouragement. It was trying, and failing, and trying again. It was a love of words, and pictures, and stories.

Quinn Cutler is sixteen and the daughter of a high-profile Brooklyn politician.

She’s also pregnant, a crisis made infinitely more shocking by the fact that she has no memory of ever having sex. Before Quinn can solve this deeply troubling mystery, her story becomes public. Rumors spread, jeopardizing her reputation, her relationship with a boyfriend she adores, and her father’s campaign for Congress.

Religious fanatics gather at the Cutlers’ home, believing Quinn is a virgin, pregnant with the next messiah. Quinn’s desperate search for answers uncovers lies and family secrets—strange, possibly supernatural ones.

Might she, in fact, be a virgin?

What first inspired you to write for young readers?
I never grew out of my childhood love of picture books and novels for kids/teens, but it wasn’t until my 30s that I discovered my passion for writing them—through a somewhat circuitous route!

In college and after, I was all about visual art—I both made art myself and was the director of a gallery in New York City. On a bit of a whim, I took a class in editorial cartooning at the School of Visual Arts.

At the end of the semester, the teacher asked if I’d considered illustrating children’s books – he thought my style would lend itself well to them. Despite my love of children’s lit, this possibility hadn’t occurred to me before. Taking his advice, I moved onto classes in illustrating kids’ books, taught by the wonderful Monica Wellington (a mentor to many in the field).

One of Marianna's illustrations

Monica had us write stories so we could practice illustrating complete narratives.

After the class ended, I continued writing and illustrating book dummies. I still didn’t consider myself a Writer—I just wanted to have dummies to show publishers my illustration abilities.

To strengthen my stories, I took an online class in writing for children of all ages. At the end of the semester, the teacher told me she thought my YA voice was particularly strong and that I should give a novel a try.

Uh…what??? I had never considered myself capable of writing a novel. But, hey, what did I have to lose? I came up with an idea and started writing a draft.

And I never looked back. As much as I loved picture books and considered myself a visual artist, writing YA felt like coming home. (Not to mention that novels are easier than picture books. After 15 or so years of trying, I still haven’t written a great picture book!)

So, long story to say that while I always loved literature for kids, my path to writing for young readers was shaped by following my interests, listening to teachers, trying new things, and staying open to where I was led. What inspired you to write this book?

I saw the Virgin Mary.

Well, sort of. There was this girl I used to see running in the park near my house, and something about her intrigued me. She looked like a “good girl” who was dealing with some difficult things behind the façade of perfection.

Around that same time, I saw a painting of the Virgin Mary by Caravaggio at the Met. And it was the girl from the park! Caravaggio’s Virgin Mary from 1610 looked exactly like her.

I thought to myself, “Aha! So that’s what the ‘good girl’ is dealing with!” A contemporary virgin pregnancy in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I knew it was a book I wanted to write.

What were the challenges (literary, research, psychological, logistical) in bringing the text to life?
Ha! This question made me laugh, as an easier one to answer would be “What wasn't a challenge in bringing the text to life?”

Everything was a challenge! Finding the right point of view, figuring out what the character would do in this very strange situation, crafting the mystery, handling the religious aspects thoughtfully…

What wasn’t a challenge in bringing this book to life was maintaining my interest in the story.

It was nine years from conception to publication, and while I wasn’t working on it that whole time, there were many years of labor and many challenges involved. And I can’t think of a moment when I lost my sense of engagement with the story.

Sure, there were times when I wanted to give up because I felt like I couldn’t do it. But I never lost the desire to get the story out of my head and onto the page.

I can’t say I love every single word in the book – I’m the type of writer who will lie in her grave wishing she could edit the words on her headstone – but I do love the story.

I understand you already knew your editor before she acquired The Inconceivable Life of Quinn? What was it like working with a friend?

Looking back, I’m surprised I wasn’t nervous that having a previous friendship with my editor might cause sticky situations. But, in any case, the nerves would have been misplaced.

Knowing Maggie made me comfortable communicating with her, helped me trust her advice (because I already knew how smart she was), and generally made me feel that my book was in very, very good hands.

And can I just give a shout out to the entire team at Amulet/Abrams?

During the whole publication process, I felt like they cared so much about the book. For example, not only is the cover the most gorgeous cover ever (thanks largely to the illustration by Christopher Silas Neal), but the book is beautiful without the jacket, too!

And instead of using black ink in the interior, they used deep blue! I will never stop being amazed by how beautiful the whole thing is as an object.

What advice do you have for beginning children’s-YA writers?
This is all very common advice, but it can’t be said enough:

1. Read! Read widely and voraciously in your genre—classics and contemporary, best sellers and award winners, books recommended by librarians and booksellers....

When you fall in love with a book, tear it apart. Figure out why you love it. Analyze every aspect. If it’s a picture book, type out the text to see what that reveals. If it’s a novel, type out a scene to feel the rhythm of the prose.

I think reading widely and critically is the single most important thing a beginning writer can do.

2. Get feedback on your stories. Not from your kids and family members. Or, at least, not only from them. Find other writers in your area or online and join a critique group. Take a class if you can.

3. Know that the process of writing and revising a book, and the process of getting published, can take a verrrrrrry long time. Don’t be in a hurry. It’s like any skill—you need to put in the hours to get where you want to be.

In some ways, no matter what happens in your career, your pre-publication days of experimentation and learning will be glory days—enjoy them!

She also attended boarding school, where she lived in a tiny dorm called Frost House, the inspiration for her first novel, Frost (Balzer & Bray, 2011). She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, the setting for The Inconceivable Life of Quinn.

Publishers Weekly gave The Inconceivable Life of Quinn a starred review. Peek: "In a suspenseful and thought-provoking novel, Baer tackles the illusiveness of memory (especially in regard to trauma), media firestorms, fear of the unknown, and the complexities of faith, without ever turning didactic or allowing Quinn’s story to fall into melodrama."

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About

New York Times & Publishers Weekly best-selling, award-winning author the Tantalize series, the Feral series and other critically acclaimed fiction for young readers. She/her. MFA Faculty, Vermont College of Fine Arts. Board member, We Need Diverse Books. Ohonvyetv!

Intern

Intern

Robin Galbraith holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Intern

Kate Pentecost holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the YA author of Elysium Girls (Hyperion, winter 2020). Kate is represented by Sara Crowe of Pippin Properties.